Odisha sends 1676 MT of oxygen; Andhra, Telangana top beneficiaries

NEW DELHI: The Odisha government Tuesday said it has stepped up the supply of oxygen, having sent 1,676 tonne of the life-saving gas to eight covid-19 hit states.

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have received the most of medical oxygen supplied by Odisha, according to official data.

“90 containers carrying 1675.781 MT medical oxygen have been escorted so far from the state by Odisha Police. More are leaving today,” said Y. K. Jethwa, additional director general of Police in Odisha.

Jethwa, who is also the nodal officer for coordinating transportation of medical oxygen from Odisha to states facing deficit, said tankers are being sent from Rourkela, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, and Angul, which are home to several steel plants.

Among the four, Rourkela and Jajpur account for almost 75% or 1241 MT of the oxygen supplied. In the last 24 hours, the state police has escorted out over 400 MT of oxygen.

Of the total oxygen sent, 30 containers with 644.72 MT of oxygen were sent to Andhra Pradesh, 19 tankers with 324.079 MT of oxygen were sent to Telangana. Madhya Pradesh received almost 216 MT of oxygen, Haryana received eight tankers filled with 187.512 MT of oxygen.

Similarly, 112.06 MT of oxygen were sent to Maharashtra and seven tankers carried around 114.17 MT of oxygen to Uttar Pradesh in less than five days. At least 61.44 MT of oxygen went to Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu has received less that 16 MT from the state.

“A dedicated corridor has been set up with round the clock monitoring. Odisha Police is committed to ensure that there is no delay in loading and transporting so as to promptly serve thousands of patients in needy states,” he said.

Odisha's response comes after chief minister Naveen Patnaik spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and few of his state counterparts on 22 April and offered them to help with oxygen

Union steel and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been in touch with all steel companies and also with Odisha administration, directing steel plants to help with oxygen supply, the minister's office in Delhi informed.